Utopia Sihanoukville

Been to Utopia twice now in one week ....... considering I've lived here for over 5 months, I honestly don't know why I have been here sooner.

The first time, it was of any evening and pretty late(ish) around 11:00pm. The place was packed, with a wide selection of clientele ranging from 'grunge' type 'backpacker' to expats in their late forties. That said, the dominant age was probably mid twenties.

Good music, people dancing, drinking and playing pool ...... good selection of comfortable seating across the two floors.

It's an 'outdoor bar' with the feeling of an indoor bar, which works really well. Plenty of fans to keep the place cool and smoke free. This really is a good thing, because going back the number of people I saw carefully 'rolling their own', I think in an enclosed area things really could get out of hand!

The second time I visited, it was early afternoon and the place was much quieter, the 3 of us had a couple of drinks and two of us decided to order something to eat. Food prices are extremely reasonable, with (if I remember rightly) nothing on the menu costing over 3 dollars! My friend ordered a pizza, and I ordered a Pasta Pesto which consists of Pasta (obviously), normally Penne, basil and tomoto drizzled with Extra Vigin Olive Oil .......... sadly it wasn't.

What came was spagetti, no basil, and a couple of tiny 'chopped' tomatos, topped off with Parmesan cheese which only served to make the already dry dish completely inedible, for me anyway.

Not one to cause a fuss though, I left the dish and continued to order a couple more beers.

One of the owners noticed I hadn't eaten and asked if "didn't like it" ...... No, it was too dry, was all I had to say before he generously said that he'd remove it from our bill ......... he didn't have to do that, but it has gone a very long way with me. A nice touch.

Overall, I would say that I will probably be returning to Utopia on many occasions ........ like the rest of town, it has a really laid back atmosphere to the place, it's comfortable and even at my age, I feel relaxed and accepted here.

I also noticed that from 8pm till 9pm they have a happy hour, with a glass of beer for the crazy price of 1500 riel!! (about 37 cents!)